The titular "hero youngster" presented here is Chen Zhen, the literary hero and classic bad-ass who was the basis for several well-revered kung fu films, most notably Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury and Jet Li's Fist of Legend.

But even though the veteran martial arts masters like Yuen Biao and Billy Chow have fairly meaty roles in this production, don't get your hopes up too much. Made for television with a budget of seemingly about fifty-four cents and with the expected leaden pacing to show for it, Hero Youngster is more often an exercise in tedium rather than excitement.

Taking place during the early days of the Japanese occupation of China during the second Sino-Japanese war, the little scamp Chen Zhen starts the movie by saving a Manchurian princess (Marsha Yuen), setting off an adventure where he helps the princess and a local Chinese resistance fighter (Yuen Biao) take on the nasty Japanese, who are led by the wily Mr. Sato (Billy Chow).

And, really, that's about it. The "adventure" here is about as thrilling as watching paint dry due to the plodding exposition, which takes up far too much of the running time, especially given this release's simple plot, which was probably written up on the back of a package of ramen noodles after a night of heavy drinking.

There are a few fight scenes thrown into the mix, but even with Yuen Biao and Billy Chow's involvement on screen, and Yuen Bun handling the action direction, they're nothing special. As a matter of fact, due to the poor camerawork and editing, as well as poorly over-dubbed sound effects that sound like they were recorded in a broom closet, they're not even average.

Even if you're the type of martial arts viewer that's not too picky about the action movies you watch, you're probably going to be wishing for the glory days of 1980's cheese like Jeff Speakman in The Perfect Weapon or Brian Bosworth in Stone Cold after sitting through the thankfully brief eighty-six minutes of this overflowing bowlful of cold cinematic chum.

RATING: 3